Some French Veterans Still Await Equality

By MATTHEW SALTMARSH

Published: August 14, 2009

France has a long tradition of drawing on colonial troops to help fight in its wars. As long ago as the end of the 18th century, Napoleon used troops from the French colonies in his Egypt campaign.

More recently, soldiers from countries like Senegal, Morocco, Mali, Algeria and Cambodia have fought under the tricolor, either during the two world wars or in subsequent campaigns in places like Indochina and Algeria.

But in the wake of France's painful postwar decolonization, those soldiers' rights and benefits were restricted by a series of laws, in contrast to the treatment of native French veterans.

Helped by shifting public opinion, the colonial veterans have in recent years won important concessions from the government, gaining better pensions and access to other social benefits. Yet they contend that they are still not afforded equal treatment.

''We were brought up with the French, we lived with them, we worked for them, we fought by their side, and we are proud to have done it,'' Mohammed Mechti, 90, a Moroccan who helped liberate France, said in an interview at his state-supported
assisted-living home in Bordeaux.

''And now,'' he added in a mix of French and Arabic through a translator, ''I'm left with the question, 'Do they love us?' ''

On Aug. 15, 1944, two months after the Allied landings in Normandy, a French force of 200,000, an estimated 65 percent of them from former colonies, landed in Provence with the United States Seventh Army. They fought through the suburbs of Toulon and
Marseille, moving on to help repel the Germans from the eastern Vosges Mountains and Alsace before crossing the Rhine. Historians estimate that about 40,000 troops of African origin died liberating the country.

Mr. Mechti fought at Monte Cassino in Italy alongside Senegalese, Algerian and British troops and recalls scaling peaks to outflank German troops.

As France's empire came apart, President Charles de Gaulle cited financial constraints and the cheaper cost of living in Africa and Asia in 1959 to link the veterans' pensions to the cost of living in those regions, freezing them at a low rate.
That policy endured for decades. But advocates pushed for reform, and in 1986 the government passed a law allowing many of the veterans to live in France. They received a newly created social payment that provided
benefits like housing and health care.

Many veterans, like Mr. Mechti, returned to French soil, choosing to end their days collecting basic state payouts to support families in their homelands. Most headed initially to Bordeaux, where a tribunal processed their claims. Once their claims were
accepted, they could receive the minimal benefits as long as they remained on French soil for nine months a year. Many did, returning home for three months.

The 2006 film ''Indig?s,'' also known by the English title ''Days of Glory,'' focused national attention on the plight of the foreign veterans. The film prompted Jacques Chirac, then the president, to order that
the veterans' pensions be raised.

An increase, costing about $155 million a year, was agreed on in 2007. But the raises affected only basic retirement pensions, which climbed to more than 450 euros a year -- now about $640 -- from about 100 euros, and disability pensions for those wounded
in combat. A separate, more significant military retirement pension, for those serving at least 15 years in the army, was not affected and remained frozen for former non-French soldiers.

According to calculations by the opposition Socialist Party, the military retirement pension is 70 euros a month for a former Moroccan soldier, while a French-born soldier receives up to 600 euros a month.

There are no concrete estimates of the number of former fighters from the colonies who are alive. Alain Rousset, a Socialist lawmaker who has backed a draft law seeking to help the veterans, estimates that about 80,000 are left worldwide. Not all would
be eligible for full pensions.

In May, Jean-Marie Bockel, then minister for defense and veterans, said in a statement that ''further efforts must be made.'' He added, ''The government is acting on the issue to reach a good and just solution.''

Advocates and opposition politicians say that foreign-born veterans still suffer from discrimination. They backed a court case against the government, and last October they won a revaluation of the pensions of six former Moroccan soldiers; a claim by
a Senegalese veteran was rejected.

The case is still being studied by the government.

''It's a question of will,'' said Christelle Jouteau, a lawyer representing Moroccans in Bordeaux. ''Things could change if the government wants it.''

She said the obstacle appeared to be budgetary.

''Legal time is much longer than human time,'' she said. ''It is difficult for these men because they are so old.''